Colleges played little part during a generation of school reform. That's no longer an option.
Carol Tsang teaches a science-and-technology class to ninth graders at Carver Early College, in Atlanta. Georgia is one of many states working to bring schools and colleges together. (Photograph by Michael Schwarz)

States are trying to coordinate all of education, from preschool through college. Amid the political and bureaucratic frustrations are some quiet successes.

Two companion Chronicle surveys suggest that, particularly in writing, college freshmen are not as prepared as their high-school teachers believe.

How do you overcome your graduates' financial obstacles to college? Pay their full tuition. Portraits of an experiment in Colorado.

Public schools and colleges in one Nevada county discover that it's easier to improve if you know where you've been failing.

In Boston, a school of education and public-school students work together to the benefit of both.

In attempting to profit from remedial teaching, some private companies have learned hard lessons in business basics.

What 11 philanthropies are doing to ease the transition from school to college.

Commentary

If states don't build better links between their school and college systems, students will continue to fall into the chasm between the two, write Michael W. Kirst and Andrea Venezia.
(Illustration by Tim Foley)

Kati Haycock, Charles B. Reed, and Gregory E. Thornton explain what colleges can do to increase the readiness of incoming freshmen.

We must harmonize what high schools expect of their graduates with what college expect of their freshmen, says Chester E. Finn Jr.

Few states have assessments that truly show whether students are ready for college or the workplace, says Stanley G. Jones.

The College Board once had standards that were uniform, predictable, and elevating, says Diane Ravitch. Now state and federal policy makers have taken over the job of assessment, and, in her assessment, they're underperforming.

Liberal education is not a job for colleges alone. It should start earlier, says Stanley N. Katz.

American education needs to be rethought from top to bottom by innovators with an entrepreneurial edge, writes Eugene W. Hickok.

The good news is that cost is not a significant barrier to a college education, says Greg Forster. The bad news is that our school systems are.

Sure, preparation's a problem, says Richard D. Kahlenberg. But cost remains a crucial, and conscious, impediment.

Education schools are the scapegoats for society's failure to reward teachers and make learning a priority, says Arthur Levine.